Analyzing Teaching Approaches for Enhancing Functional Writing Skills at the Secondary Level

This study aims to analyze the current level of functional writing skills among secondary students, examine teaching approaches for enhancing functional writing skills, and explore challenges teachers face in integrating information and communication technology into a communicative language teaching approach at the secondary level. The existing research was descriptive in nature. All English teachers and 10th-grade students from District Jhelum, Punjab, Pakistan, constituted the population of this study. A sample of 600 respondents (400 students and 200 teachers) was randomly selected for data collection. In this study, two research instruments, in the form of five-point Likert-based questionnaires, were used for data collection. The students' questionnaire contained 40 items, while the English teachers' questionnaire contained 60 items. Both instruments were validated, and their reliability was checked before application. The researcher personally collected the required data through visits and by using Google Forms with the respondents. The analysis of the data was conducted using SPSS. The results revealed that secondary students had a moderate level of functional writing skills and that teachers employed various teaching approaches, including communicative language teaching, to develop functional writing skills at moderate levels. Moreover, most English teachers strongly agreed that the communicative language teaching approach is effective in developing functional writing skills, and the use of information and communication technology within communicative language teaching plays a vital role in enhancing students' functional writing skills. This study recommends that policymakers offer professional development programs to train teachers in effectively using the communicative language teaching approach through information and communication technology to enhance students' functional writing skills.